Redcurrant Jelly

OK so the summer hols went on a little bit longer than expected! I have tons and tons of stuff to stick on here about the wedding, the stag, the honeymoon as well as the usual stuff at home.

Here is my recipe of the classic accompaniment to venison, terrine, pate and the like

It couldn't be easier to make. Just get equal quantities of both redcurrants and sugar. Boil up the fruit until it realises it's juice (about ten minutes) and then add in the sugar. Boil for eight minutes before straining through muslin and into sterilised jars. Simple as that!

Tom Doorley digs the Bounty!

Been meaning to put this up. I recieved this message from food writer Tom Doorley about barrowsbounty.com.
"Hiya Liam. This looks really good. Keep up the good work. You have inspired me to start blogging again".
I must be doing something right!!! Good man Tom!

Plans for the year

Firstly sorry for the break in posting. I was in hibernation with Christmas and the snow!

I really just wanted to let you all know what the plans for the coming year are going to be.

I will be continuing to try and grow as much of our vegetables and fruit as possible. The pigs and laying hens will also feature along with trying to find as much wild food as possible.. A new departure will be chickens for the table. Me and a buddy of mine are going to raise some chickens for eating so I will keep you posted as to how we get on!

The big project for the year however is going to be our wedding which is happening in June. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew here as I want to try and have all the food for the wedding either home grown produce or wild food! At 150 people it is by far the biggest challenge I have attempted in the garden and kitchen.

We are having a marquee and the idea is to have a relaxed homemade wedding with all our friends and family. The food (hopefully!!) will be some canapes of wild food followed by a whole spit roast pig with salads and vegetables from the garden and then some kind of seasonal dessert which will feature our eggs and fruit. God its a bit overwhelming when you actually write it all down!

I will post on here as to how I am getting on with the preperations, whether it be catching a wild salmon to growing the vegetables or trying to encourage the pig to grow so it is ready for June!!

The picture above is of me and George spending some man time on our local shoot which we have been doing quite a lot of while we have been away.

River Cottage Part 2

Following on from the last post Hugh arrived around midday to take the afternoon part of the course. I suppose Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall is River Cottage to most people so it was great that I managed to get on a course that he was attending. He rocked in driving his battered old Landy and did a cookery demo for us. He cooked our starter for lunch which was chicken livers on toast. Essentially it was chicken livers fried off with some sherry mustard and other bits and pieces. Anyone that would like the recipe just leave a comment on this post and I will pass it on to you.

After the cooking demo he spent some time going round having a chat to everyone, signing books and getting pictures taken. While this was going on the rest of the staff were transforming the barn where we had the morning's classes into a dining room. We were promptly called for dinner which was their own roast chicken with all the trimmings and very nice it was too. A nice touch was that they had placed eggs at various seats around the table which we were not allowed to sit at. The hosts for the day plus Hugh then sat in these seats and moved around the table throughout the meal. It was really nice to be able to have a chat with them all and was probably the highlight of the day for me.

After lunch there was a Q and A session followed by a class on how to kill, pluck and clean a chicken. River Cottage's head chef Gillon Meller or Gill as everyone called him took us through the process and gave everyone great confidence, especially those that had not attempted anything like this before. We all got our own bird to have a go at which we were given to bring home at the end of the day.

It was about 5pm by then and the day was over. Everyone was given a signed copy of the River Cottage cookbook. For those that already had it they were allowed choose something else from the on site shop. I took home a signed copy of the Beyond River Cottage DVD. This was only a small thing but it showed the effort everyone made to make the visit to River Cottage as enjoyable as possible. Nothing was too much trouble.

With that we all jumped up onto the back of the tractor and returned to the real world after our River Cottage treatment! A very worthwhile day out and a must for anyone who finds themselves down Dorset way!

The Girls

Over the next few days I will try and introduce you to the various characters here at Barrows Bounty.

First off here are the hens, Agnes and Betty. Betty is the one closest to the camera and Agnes is in the backround. To be honest I dont really trust Agnes there is something sneaky about her and I suspect she isnt pulling her weight in the egg production stakes! On the whole though these two little troupers are the least hassle of all and day in day out they go about their business of scratching away and making us plenty of eggs